Nokia Corp. has put an end to weeks of rumors surrounding the fate of its HERE Maps, announcing that it’s sold the service to a consortium of German car makers for $3 billion (€2.8 billion).

The auto makers in question are Audi AG, BMW AG and Mercedes’ parent company Daimler AG, who all take an equal share in the mapping service. The deal was predicted two weeks ago by The Wall Street Journal, which also said the trio will look for other interested parties to invest in the business.

The consortium hasn’t said anything about what it intends to do with HERE, but the smart money says they won’t just be embedding it into their car dashboards and leaving it at that. Instead, it’s widely assumed they’ll use HERE’s technology to help them build self-driving cars.

Nokia hintedas much, explaining that HERE uses “data generated by vehicles, devices and infrastructure to deliver real-time, predictive and personalized location services” that “will enable an entirely new class of driver experiences, including highly automated driving.”

Although most self-driving cars rely on sensors and cameras when they take the wheel out of the human driver’s hands, the systems are underpinned by precise digital maps, mobility and location-based service capabilities that can provide real-time traffic data and help the vehicles avoid getting lost.

For now though, HERE users will be glad to know that it’s business as usual. The mapping app, available on Android, iOS and Windows Phone, won’t be going anywhere soon.

“The management of Here will continue to be independent – with the goal of moving the Here business case forward as a platform, open to all customers. The consortium will not interfere into operational business,” the new owners said.

The consortium explains that the acquisition is, for now at least, intended to secure the long-term availability of HERE and ensure it’s accessible by all customers. There’s certainly no reason why they shouldn’t do that, for HERE already pays for itself with revenues coming from licensing its maps and real-time traffic software to car makers like The Ford Motor Company, Honda Motor Co., Ltd., Mazda Motor Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp., among others. It also counts Facebook, Microsoft, SAP SE, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and Yahoo! Inc. among its enterprise customers.

By all accounts, the consortium had to beat off some heavy competition to get its hands on HERE. Uber Technologies Inc. and Baidu Inc. were among a number of companies that were said to be interested in buying it. However, the German auto makers emerged as the frontrunners after Uber announced it was instead buying technology and imagery data from Microsoft’s Bing Maps service.

As for Nokia, the sale is just the latest step in the company’s transformation into a predominantly network equipment firm, which will be boosted by its massive $15.6 billion acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent S.A, when that deal concludes in early 2016. However, the company also retains Nokia Technologies, its technology and licensing business.

“Going forward, we will focus on our planned combination with Alcatel-Lucent,” said Rajeev Suri, president and CEO of Nokia. “Once that is complete, Nokia will be a renewed company, with a world-leading network technology and services business, as well as the licensing and innovation engine of Nokia Technologies.”

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